Grow and lend: Library to host seed saver workshop, swap

A Seed Saver Workshop and Seed Swap will be held on Tuesday, April 23 at the Pickford Community Library, 230 E. Main Street, at 6:30 p.m.

Everyone is invited to participate and bring vegetable and flower seeds to help establish “Virge & Immie’s Seed Saver Project” as well as trade seeds with others at the workshop.

Virge & Immie’s Seed Saver Project has been established at the Pickford Community Library.

Saving Seed is a vital step toward sustainability, food security and is a missing link in today’s gardening. Let’s learn to save seed again. A Seed Library is a place for community members to check seed out for free, grow it out in their gardens, and return twice as much seed as they took — or any amount.

Here’s how it works: A library card gets those interested a packet of seeds. Gardeners then grow the fruits and vegetables, harvest the new seeds from the biggest and best, and return those seeds so the library can lend them out to others. The borrower will take seeds from the plants that withstand pests and persevere through our climate conditions.

While a library may seem like an odd location for a project like this, seeds and plants should be open to everyone. That makes a public library the perfect home for a seed collection. The American Library Association says there are at least a dozen similar programs throughout the country.

A Seed Library will help to build bio-diversity for the local food supply, as well as educate gardeners on how to save true seed. Growing healthy, nutritious, grown food improves the lives of the community and brings people together. Saving seed is a time-honored tradition that everyone can share.